American astronaut Neil Armstrong’s famous quote of “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind” during the first lunar landing can be defined as actors (whether it be people, nations, ethnic/religious groups, etc.) should tackle small challenges in a large scheme before moving on to bigger issues. His quote can also help us to understand recent Georgian-Russian relations. Russia earlier this month joined the World Trade Organization after Georgia dropped its objections to Russia joining the UN body in an agreement brokered by Swiss mediators. Both sides did not get what they wanted entirely as they came to a compromise. Georgia and Russia agreeing on something may not sound like a major achievement, but it is a step in the long road to re-normalizing relations between the two countries. Reconciling differences between nations does not happen out over night. They start with small steps. Since the conflict between the two neighbors in 2008, relations have improved from a previous record breaking low. The agreement of Russian membership in the WTO is just one thing in a list of mini-steps toward improving relations such as opening up interest sections in each other countries via the Swiss embassy, allowing limited chartered plane flights between Moscow and Tbilisi, negotiations over the lifting a Russian import ban of Borjomi mineral water and hopefully more improvements in their relationship to come. Historically, small diplomatic maneuvers can have lead to big changes. Take for instance Sino-American relations. The United States and the People’s Republic of China did not have diplomatic relations from the communist takeover of the Chinese mainland until the early 1970s. What helped to thaw decades of total mistrust was a series Ping-Pong or Table Tennis matches between national teams. Now China is America’s second largest trading partner and America is China’s largest trading partner all in the span of about forty years. People usually begin with small projects and eventually move on to bigger things as we progress, in a similar spirit to re-establish diplomatic relations between countries.

-Kyle Logan